A few days ago, as part of research for a copywriting project, I watched a movie called 12 Angry Men.
There are some spoilers about it ahead. So if you’re ever planning on watching this 1957 classic, it may be best to stop reading now.
Still here?
All right. Then I can spoil for you that this entire movie is about a jury deliberating a murder case.
An 18-year-old kid is charged with killing his father. Did he do it?
All the jurors believe so. Except for juror #8, who has a few doubts.
Over the course of the movie, through some unlikely twists and turns, this one guy, played by Henry Fonda, manages to flip all the other jurors.
The toughest nut to crack is a bull-necked businessman. He refuses to believe the kid shouldn’t go to the chair. After all, what about the woman who saw the kid do it?
And then the following exchange takes place:
Henry Fonda: Don’t you think the woman might have made a mistake?
Bull-necked businessman: No!
Henry: It’s not possible?
Bull-neck: It’s not possible!
Stubborn. Of course, what this last juror is saying is, it’s so improbable it’s practically impossible. And that reminded me of something insightful I heard from marketer Rich Schefren.
Rich was talking about prospects in direct response markets. These markets tend to be filled with people who have repeatedly failed to solve their problem. In time, many of these people conclude that solving their problem is so improbable that it is practically impossible.
The standard marketing approach ignores this. A typical sales letter explains how great the offer is. And then it gives testimonials to prove it.
“It might work for them,” your bull-headed prospect will say. “But my situation is different. It’s impossible!”
So your job as a direct response marketer is not just to show your prospect his problem can be solved. Instead, you gotta give the prospect hope that this time it’s different, and that success is probable, not just possible.
How do you do that?
I can think of a few different ways. I’ll tell you about one of them, which works well for swinging a jury of skeptical information buyers, in my email tomorrow. If you don’t want to miss that, here’s where you can subscribe to my newsletter.